The best class for PVE is the one you like the most. Don't get caught in the trap that you play the highest performing class ... and then find out you hate the way it plays. Frankly, many people would say what you are playing now is the best class.

If you think balancing is only driven by performance and justified by comparisons to other classes then prepare to be educated:

@mayogirl.4160 said:
Hi all, I'm a lvl 80 mirage rn, and I just cannot solo pve with my current char right now. Which class/specialization would you recommend for soloing PVE? Any drawbacks of said class? Thanks!

Mirage is a very soloable class. Post your gear and Build and let us all offer more specific feedback.

@HyperLooser.2698 said:
rev is good both power and condi. Can solo champs and everything, provides its own might and crit and vuln. Renegade AoE destroys defiance bars quick and can kite even with melee weps.

I really like my rev, but I feel its a lot of work, and in no way can I solo champs

@HyperLooser.2698 said:
rev is good both power and condi. Can solo champs and everything, provides its own might and crit and vuln. Renegade AoE destroys defiance bars quick and can kite even with melee weps.

I really like my rev, but I feel its a lot of work, and in no way can I solo champs

It's more difficult to solo camps on a rev than some other classes but it's still trivial to do so.

I gotta say I am loving me some Chrono right now! Was "maining" Holosmith as it rocked but have re-discovered that which is Chrono and its great. Take some time to step back and see what you are doing as with Mirage mobs should be melting...

i will say this for you if you want a class that can solo but takes time to lern its will be mes and thief they can solo anything but you need to play them for a wial to get used to the way they play. like mes is condi is op in pvp wvw and pve when you lern the ins and outs of it. for thief its all good but if you like daggers go deadeye and the dps is good. it is all up to playstyle though so if you just want easy then go necro or ele for it for ele go staff and zerker and you can solo almost anything. necro is a heavy condi type so not mutch to say on that.

@mayogirl.4160 said:
Hi all, I'm a lvl 80 mirage rn, and I just cannot solo pve with my current char right now. Which class/specialization would you recommend for soloing PVE? Any drawbacks of said class? Thanks!

I am pretty sure it is not up to the class - mesmer is very capable class at PvE side, too - but either gears, build or most probably getting used to mesmer playing. Trying another class will probably help you to find out those fancy bits on mesmer, too, so here are my suggestions.

From the classes I have / have played, if you want pretty relaxed PvE side playing, try druid-ranger. Druid spec really changes the entire nature of the class, so you will need to level your ranger all the way up to 80, and after that grab those 250 Hero Points to unlock Druid spec. I admit that it can be pretty tedious task. My druid-ranger has been my PvE work horse just because it is versatile and very forgiving both in solo and group play (that is, it is forgiving class to your team messing up things). Druid/ranger is my most played class so far.

Another possibility could be Guardian, as you can trait it to allow simple and straight-forward game play with just core traits. On Guardian you most probably want later unlock both HoT and PoF specs (Dragonhunter and Firebrand), thought. For me, Guardian was once quite refreshing experience at lower levels. I later switched back to play my Druid-ranger more, and my Guardian is mostly reserved for WvW larger scale fights, where Druid/ranger feels very underwhelming.

I heartly suggest you to try out any class you think you could like. Either you find a class that suits your play style better (you could help us to help you to state more clearly how you'd like to play, what are you expecting from a class), or you will find your mesmer and its greatness again.

I play mine with condi sb/sb just for extra ease of play. Its so amazingly broken.

what?

Wat what? Soulbeast in and out (2s), pet comes back at 100% health every time, even from dead. The pet is immortal. Dont even need pet swapping anymore.

I assume its intended behaviour, because otherwise best bug since the mesmer fall trait doing 20K+ damage a second.

You cannot merge with a dead pet...you either merge before it dies or you swap it, so it's intended indeed

In that case my pet is broken because I interpret this as merging with a dead pet
Maybe I am just misunderstanding something here but the pet going to 0 hp and the character saying it's down is dead right? I dont normally play SB (or ranger for that matter). I just know it feels too easy for PvE.

I didnt know that if you unmerged straight afterwards your pet gets full HP again. This makes tanking champions very easy, even with the 8s timer before you can summon pet again it should last that long atleast). Given how good your pet is at drawing aggro it definitely makes Soul Beast a very good solo class for new players when taking short bow and taking the trait that makes SB skill pierce. Only draw back is dmg takes some time to ramp up against trash mobs compared to power chars who can one shot them.

@eldrjth.7384 said:
I didnt know that if you unmerged straight afterwards your pet gets full HP again. This makes tanking champions very easy, even with the 8s timer before you can summon pet again it should last that long atleast). Given how good your pet is at drawing aggro it definitely makes Soul Beast a very good solo class for new players when taking short bow and taking the trait that makes SB skill pierce. Only draw back is dmg takes some time to ramp up against trash mobs compared to power chars who can one shot them.

The damage is pretty decent if you run full vipers and ramp up is fast enough. I dont even have good gear, my mirage currently got my viper trinkets so I just threw in whatever was laying in the bank lol. Like a marauder earring, an apothecary ring, dont even know what amulet it was haha. Meh it works for world completion and yes, it most definetly make it easy.

The best part of Ranger is that your pet will almost always revive you if you get downed. But I hate their bows. Axe/Torch is much more fun to me.

Mesmer is definitely difficult to play and master. It's all about reading and reacting to situations. For example, in PoF, they really ramped up the ranged attacks of the mobs. So behoove you to equip weapons, skills and traits that absorb or reflect ranged attacks--which mesmer has plenty of counterplay against ranged attacks.

@Zin Dau.1749 said:
The best part of Ranger is that your pet will almost always revive you if you get downed.

In particular in worst case scenario where you literally drown from boredom because the weapons suck - underwater combat. Soloed terror-seven and fluffy a couple days ago and went down quite alot lol. Pet got your back.

@mayogirl.4160 said:
Hi all, I'm a lvl 80 mirage rn, and I just cannot solo pve with my current char right now. Which class/specialization would you recommend for soloing PVE? Any drawbacks of said class? Thanks!

Hello! All classes are good in PvE with the right build. If you are new to the game, website like GW2 Meta can help give you an idea of possible gear and builds.

For new Mesmer I would recommend ranged weapons. Both great sword and staff are solid ranged weapons in open world PvE. Great sword works better with power builds and staff with condition builds.

As a general gearing advice, I would strongly recommend not getting any gear with healing power or toughness. And for Mesmer I would not recommend hit points either. Seems counterintuitive, but dead mobs deal the least damage. And if you are not sure what you are doing building none damage builds are not advisable.

Honestly I've been having a lot of trouble with my new Mesmer, too. I go into downed state pretty much every other fight. Maybe because Ive been playing Minion Reaper for a LONG time and got used to her durability. If you want survivability Id suggest Minion Reaper with Rise. Just be aware you can get very used to it, making the more glassy/dodge-dependant classes feel a lot harder.

@mayogirl.4160 said:
Hi all, I'm a lvl 80 mirage rn, and I just cannot solo pve with my current char right now. Which class/specialization would you recommend for soloing PVE? Any drawbacks of said class? Thanks!

LMAO. I just switched from Chrono to Mirage, and the Mirage is so ridiculously OP for solo PVE. I could solo champ, vets, groups of mobs simultaneously without any fear. out of all the classes I've played, Mirage is by far the most OP. enemies die so fast and i got so much evasion and damage mitigation. see this topic https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/30394/open-world-domination-mirage for the topic that inspired me to change specs.

That's some kind of personal preference. I play mostly chrono mesmer in close combat with sword/sword/shield/focus and for me it's even easier to play and stay alive than an minion or valkyrie reaper. Lot's of evades, blocks and invulnerable skills make it pretty easy, even as full zerker glass cannon. Mirage is even more easier than chrono imo, but i dislike the dodge mechanik and the super flashy spinning and jumping around like a pinball playstyle.

@mayogirl.4160 said:
Hi all, I'm a lvl 80 mirage rn, and I just cannot solo pve with my current char right now. Which class/specialization would you recommend for soloing PVE? Any drawbacks of said class? Thanks!

I'd say Reaper for PVE. (Aside from raid, they're top tier in every PVE contents and they never die too due to insanely powerful down-state life leeching)
They're very powerful in fractal too. (INSANE breakbar potential and INSANE aoe cc, good aoe dm/ very tanky with full offensive gears/ /good sustain)

@mayogirl.4160 said:
Hi all, I'm a lvl 80 mirage rn, and I just cannot solo pve with my current char right now. Which class/specialization would you recommend for soloing PVE? Any drawbacks of said class? Thanks!

Like stated in several posts above, any class can more or less PvE pretty easy depending on build, skillful dodges and such.

If Mirage is your current main and you're having issues, shield and sword with Chronomancer makes you really "durable" even with a glasscannon build.
My current build runs a blend of assassin gear and berserker for 100% crit rate with conditions met.

Use shield skill 4 with default binding twice over f.ex. longer aoe attacks and the likes, that will grant you two clones , while you wait for those to spawn, pop your sword skill 3 with default bindings for a third, then pop sword skill 2 to be untargetble while waiting for the shield clones, pop f4 default binding for even more distortion and invulnerbility, time dodges with attacks and use your f5 in correlation with these abilities and your elite timewarp for double the time distortion/invulnerbility, blocks, quickness and slows on your enemies which with the right traits grant even more crit chance etc.

Exhausted your options? Swap to Greatsword and kite while you wait for your cooldowns, use clones to tank hits for you etc.

if you want an in-depth explenation of a build like this just add me in-game and send me a mail and I could go over it with you in discord or something:)

It's not for everyone I guess, but I like hard hitting builds which feel kind of idk high risk, high reward kind of.

@Aomine.5012 said:
I'd say Reaper for PVE. (Aside from raid, they're top tier in every PVE contents and they never die too due to insanely powerful down-state life leeching)
They're very powerful in fractal too. (INSANE breakbar potential and INSANE aoe cc, good aoe dm/ very tanky with full offensive gears/ /good sustain)

Well, a reaper may be insanely powerful in fractals when everyone else is bad. In a competent group, other power builds wipe the floor with a reaper.

This is something I say to a lot but, there is no one true path. No one best anything. More so in PvE. There are professions and Elites that may be easier or harder to learn or master but being easy or hard doesn't always equate to best. It all basically comes down to your build and your playstyle. While it may be true that there is no one true path and no best profession it is also the case that not every profession/elite is suited for everyone. Folks can advise you on what they find fun but what's fun for me may not be fun for you.

My best advice is to just build a bunch of toons and keep playing around with them to figure out which one is best for you.

It all depends GW2 has all kinds of enemies for example going condition damage works well for some enemies. But going burst damage is faster way faster I noticed this when helping other players fight different mobs on the map. While they applied the condition damage I just went with my greatsword used skill 2 and killed that mob or in some cases mobs. But condition damage can be safer with and smaller possibility of dying.